The countdown to harvest has begun. What will you think about from the seat of your combine? Or tractor? Or semi?

“The seat of the combine is the best place to grade yourself on how you did this year,” says Dave Wallner, Channel seedsman from Pleasant Plains. “When you’re going through a field and seeing that yield fluctuate, and you’re seeing different hybrids and products performing differently, I really encourage farmers to ask themselves why the yields are what they are.”

“Every field has a story,” Wallner says. Figuring out the “why” is the only way to know what worked, what didn’t and what needs to change for next season.

As farmers scout fields for the last time and create a harvest plan, industry experts provide a list of things to think about from the seat of their combine.

Mind the monitor

Yield performance is the first thing farmers want to know at harvest. Brent Tharp, agronomy and product training manager with Wyffels Hybrids, says farmers should compare each hybrid and “get a gauge for how the hybrid performed in that particular environment.” Tharp also says to watch for consistency throughout the field.

DISEASE CHECK: Angie Peltier, extension educator with the University of Illinois, recommends reviewing the mental or physical list of disease problems spotted during summer scouting. Having a good handle on disease pressure will help guide disease resistance package, seed treatment and potentially rotation decisions for next season.

It’s not all about yield

Tharp notes while yield is the obvious factor to watch, there’s more to keep in mind. Farmers should give each hybrid an overall score on stalk quality, harvestability and late season intactness. Grain quality and test weight are also important. Lance Tarochione, Asgrow/DeKalb technical agronomist, adds farmers should keep in mind a hybrid that performs really well this year may perform completely different in next year’s growing conditions. “We need to be a little careful making a definitive decision from the combine,” he says.

You can’t go back in time

Tarochione says farmers who aren’t capturing and recording yield data should start now. “Even if the grower isn’t set up to do variable rate seeding or variable hybrid planting today, they need to look three or four years ahead,” he explains. “If four years from now you decide you want to do something with precision data, you can’t go back and collect data.” Make sure your yield monitor is properly calibrated and data is recorded.

Is corn shelling like it should?

Angie Peltier, extension educator with the University of Illinois, says Diplodia ear rot can cause lightweight weight ears and sticky husks. She adds diseased kernels may be more brittle and more susceptible to breakage. Other ear mold pathogens can contaminate grain with mycotoxins, resulting in poor quality and potential dockage or rejection at the elevator.  “If I had ear mold issues, I’d make a mental note to plant a hybrid with a higher resistance score in that field the next time I planted corn in it,” says Peltier.

Related: Prime time for molds and rots

Checking it twice

Peltier recommends reviewing the mental or physical list of disease problems spotted during summer scouting. “Particularly looking for diseases caused by pathogens that overwinter in residue of previously infected crops,” Peltier says. Having a good handle on disease pressure will help guide disease resistance package, seed treatment and potentially rotation decisions for next season.

Brian Wood, who farms near Raymond, Ill., says Sudden Death Syndrome is one disease threat on his radar this year. A seed treatment, such as Illevo, is on his consideration list for next season.

Commit to scout in 2017

“If I didn’t have either a mental or physical list because I hadn’t scouted, I’d make a solid commitment to scout in 2017,” says Peltier. “This is the most time-tested way to be aware of anything that may be negatively affecting my crops. Knowledge is power.”

Brake for Palmer

Peltier recommends looking for weedy pockets in fields, especially Palmer amaranth. “If I am seeing Palmer I would stop the combine and follow the University of Illinois’ Weeds Team recommendations,” says Peltier. The university strongly advises against running Palmer amaranth through combines and spreading the noxious weed further in the field, and beyond. Dennis Bowman, extension educator for the University of Illinois, says, “There’s a zero tolerance policy for Palmer amaranth.”

Yes, that means physically removing the weed from the field. The Illinois weeds’ team suggests placing the pulled weed in a heavy-duty garden bag and burying or burning the bag. “Anyone who’s heard Aaron Hager’s presentation on what one (Palmer amaranth) plant can do in two or three years if left unaddressed understands,” Bowman says. “We have to make sure we don’t let those patches turn into bigger problems.” The University Weeds Team also recommend against tilling Palmer amaranth seeds in the fall. Seeds left on the surface are more likely to be removed by birds and insects that feed on seed. 

What’s left?

Terry Wyciskalla, CCA, Nashille, Ill., highly recommends scouting for weed species left in fields this fall. “They (farmers) need to make good notes for each field - actually write them down - including locations, types, and density of the weeds present,” he says. “These will be the problem areas next year when it comes to weed control.”

Tarochione says farmers using technology, such as Climate FieldView Pro, can mark problem areas a new way. “If you’re going through patches of seeded out waterhemp, giant ragweed or velvetleaf, you can make a mental note, or use available technology to drop a pin, to remind yourself where to watch next year,” he says. “Weed control has been a challenge this season.”

Farmers may need to rethink next season’s herbicide plans to ensure the discovered weeds are controlled. “I would also revisit my weed management strategy to make sure that it was integrated and varied,” Peltier notes. “In 2017, I would be sure to walk this section of the field to make sure that my management plan was effective.”

Trial and error

Do you think you’re onto something with a different agricultural practice? Is there something different you want to try next year?  “I would think about the top research question that I had and determine whether it was something that I could answer through on-farm experimentation,” says Peltier. Emerson Nafziger, University of Illinois Extension agronomist, says “testing ‘something against nothing’ is simpler and easier to interpret than treatments that are less exact and dependent on field conditions, for example one type of tillage against another.”

Nafziger adds averaging several alternating strips across a field “will almost always give a better average than putting in a block of each treatment.” That’s because natural yield variance between any two strips is possible and positive outcomes may still happen by chance.

For some farmers, the season’s report card starts long before the combine fires up.

“We’ve already started making decisions as I’m watching this crop grow, I’m making mental notes on what I like and what I don’t like,” says Wood. “But the first few days in the combine are always the best because you can finally jump in and see what you got.”